Chan Is Missing : Pup’s Owner Recalls Sleuth Strategy From ‘Ace Ventura’

The eight-pound, wrinkly faced, purebred Shih Tzu certainly looked like the perfect dognaping target--a harmless little yapper that would darn near fit in a coat pocket and was sure to bring a hefty price.

How was the young thief to know he would set in motion the forces of Hollywood, high finance and the greatest pet detective in the history of the world?

The diminutive dog’s name is Chan. Chan’s owner is Ryan Slater. Ryan’s brother is heartthrob thespian Christian Slater. Their mother is Mary Jo Slater, a casting director whose credits include, yes, “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective.”

The teen-age dognaper never had a chance.

Of course, what self-respecting stolen-pet mystery would be complete without an 8-year-old girl who believes the errant pup is her birthday present, a giant chunk of reward change, and Sherlock Bones, real-life pet detective?

The tale began May 6, when the Slaters discovered Chan missing from their Sherman Oaks yard and a teen-age boy with an I’m-in-trouble-now look on his face tossed the dog through Shannon Elldrege’s car window and bolted.

Elldrege was on her way to pick up a birthday cake for her daughter, Brittney, when she saw a large dog hit by a car at the intersection of Woodman and Burbank boulevards. Near the downed dog was the boy, carrying the tiny Shih Tzu, and Elldrege assumed the youth had been out walking both dogs. She drove over to see if he needed help.

“He was petrified when I pulled up,” Elldrege recalled. “I said, ‘Are you OK? Is that your dog?’ ”

Instead of a reply, he gave her Chan. “He just dropped her through my passenger window and off he ran.”

A befuddled Elldrege, finally deciding that the healthy-looking Chan must have been swiped, drove around for more than an hour searching for someone searching for a dog. When she finally gave up and returned home--having forgotten all about the birthday cake--Brittney was giddy with delight. A puppy for her birthday!

Well, um, no.

By the time Brittney was learning that Chan was not her birthday present--plus, there was no cake--Mary Jo Slater was organizing the Mother of All Pet-Hunts for her missing Shih Tzu.

She and Ryan began with homemade signs and a bumper sticker that read: “Have you seen Chan?”

Having cast “Ace Ventura,” however, Slater knew this type of case took a special breed of pet sleuth. She called in Andrea Dahn, of Dog Gone in Santa Monica, and a Walnut Creek detective named Sherlock Bones.

Bones (a.k.a. John Keane) printed 2,500 posters, mailing one to every veterinary hospital within 15 miles of the Slater home. And, just as he’d done when “Ace” star Jim Carrey’s then-wife, Melissa, lost her Jack Russell terrier a couple of years back, Bones offered long-distance kibbles of pet-finding wisdom.

Dahn handled the groundwork, passing out the posters (Reward! $500) door-to-door, staking out shelters and grooming parlors.

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Shannon and Brittney Elldrege, meanwhile, were spending every afternoon combing through newspapers and canvassing the San Fernando Valley, trying to find out where Chan came from.

“I’ve lost pets and know what it’s like,” Elldrege said. “I really wanted to find her owner. I’d say to Brittney, ‘Don’t get attached, don’t get attached,’ and all the time we were both getting attached.”

On the 10th, and what was to be the final, day of searching, mother and daughter spotted the poster on a utility pole. It was rain-soaked and torn in half, missing any mention of a reward. But the fuzzy, gray picture was definitely that of Chan.

The dog/family reunion Wednesday at Mary Jo’s Santa Monica office was a thrill for the Slaters, who had pretty much decided that Chan was gone and might have to be buried in absentia in the front yard next to Ryan’s two chameleons.

For Shannon and Brittney Elldrege, the parting was bittersweet. Slater insisted they take the $500, but what perked Brittney up was the offer of a yet-to-be-conceived puppy, courtesy of Chan.

“A girl,” Brittney said.

And the only logical name for the daughter of Chan?

“Chin.”